Keeping Entrepreneurship at the Heart of the American Experience

Sarah Koch

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Entrepreneurs are vital members of our communities. The products and services they provide, innovation they spur and jobs they create are critical to the economic wellbeing of a community and a core part of the American Experience. As we have seen in the growth of the Impact Investing movement over the past ten years, entrepreneurs are also increasingly focusing part, if not all, of their efforts on addressing social and environmental problems that other stakeholders have been somewhat ineffective at solving.

While we know that the idea of entrepreneurs toiling away by themselves alone in a garage is a myth, while bringing forward these innovative new ideas, many entrepreneurs do spend a significant amount of time working by themselves or in small teams before their business gets to scale. It takes a village to get a startup off the ground, but building the community needed to succeed can be challenging. For example, 48 percent of women founders cite a lack of available mentors as a barrier to success and the average cost to launch a startup is around $30,000 with reports claiming that 80 percent of funding for new businesses comes from personal savings, friends and family. This creates additional roadblocks for entrepreneurs without wealthy friends and families.

We believe that entrepreneurs are only as strong as the community around them — investors, ecosystem builders, their team, supportive policy and you! As we approach Small Business Saturday and #GivingTuesday, we have rounded up some of the ways that anyone, anywhere can help entrepreneurs succeed.

Head to #FacesofFounders to read more about how you can support the entrepreneurship ecosystem…

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ABOUTSarah Koch

As Vice President of Social Innovation at the Case Foundation, Sarah leads the inclusive entrepreneurship movement, which works to create the opportunity for women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color to grow their businesses.